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35 Syracuse J. Int'l L. & Com. 123 (2007-2008)
Violence, Culture, & (and) HIV/AIDS: Can Domestic Violence Laws Reduce African Women's Risk of HIV Infection

handle is hein.journals/sjilc35 and id is 127 raw text is: VIOLENCE, CULTURE, & HIV/AIDS: CAN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAWS REDUCE AFRICAN WOMEN'S RISK OF HIV INFECTION? Janet E. Moon* In spite of the number of women contracting HIV/AIDS through violent means, States have yet to fully acknowledge and act upon the interconnection between these two mutually reinforcing pandemics. -Yakin Ertiirk, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women If women 's sexuality in Africa wasn't under assault, if women were able to say no, if women weren't subject to predatory attacks by men, or predatory behaviour generally, then you would have a disease in Africa called AIDS. But you wouldn't have a pandemic. -Stephen Lewis, Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa INTRODUCTION: STORIES OF VIOLENCE, CULTURE, AND HIV IN AFRICA In southern Africa,' violence, culture, and HIV/AIDS converge in a tangled web around rural black women. This web abuses, infects, and kills women. Separately, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS pose grave threats to women. In South Africa alone, intimate partner violence kills five women a week.2 In the same country between 1997 and 2004 the * J.D. Candidate Syracuse University College of Law, 2008. Thank you to Alan R. Moon for his unflagging support, to Professor Peter Bell for his discerning questions, to Professor Paula Johnson for her knowledgeable insights, and to my journal colleagues for their help and humor. I could not have successfully completed the writing process without them. Of course, any errors belong to me. 1. For the purposes of this article, southern Africa, refers to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Where possible, the article uses data specific to these countries. However, many data sources are organized more generally and refer to sub-Saharan Africa, which includes many countries beyond the focus of this article. When information applies sub-Saharan Africa, instead of a specific country or southern Africa, it is so noted. Additionally, in this article the term violence is shorthand for physical and sexual violence in domestic and intimate partner relationships. Although this article focuses primarily on intimate partner relationships between Black African women and men, where men are the aggressors, violence affects all types of relationship and all people. Finally, the term culture is not all encompassing. Some cultural practices protect and support women. And because no culture has perfect gender parity, all cultures have some practices that oppress women. So in this article the cultural norms and practices at issue are those that place southern African women at greater risk of HIV infection. 2. Microfinance, Intimate-Partner Violence, and HIV, 368 THE LANCET 1937, 1937 (2006).

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